Eleven days ago, my six year old son dumped a cup of water into my internet router. Why he did this remains a mystery, but I was so relieved the water heater hadn’t burst (my first panicked thought when I saw the puddle of water by the computer) that I didn’t inquire too closely. Anyway, a long chain of events led to a new DSL line and lots of time on tech support with “stewart”. At midnight last night, when I announced joyfully “we have internet!” he chuckled and told me in a thick Indian accent “you can surf the net now”.
The whole time the internet was out I didn’t write. Its not like I can’t write without a computer–I can and have written on a napkin–but I decided to use the time working on projects I tend to ignore when I’m writing. Now I have reaffirmed why I usually ignore them. But at least my office is neat.
So I’m suffering from blog backup. I have multitudinous potential blog entries percolating in my mind, but I may as well start with the most recent and work backwards.
This is a continuation of my musings on definitions. I often think members of the Bush Administration, George W in particular, need to go back to entry level college composition classes. Their arguments lack internal coherency. Not only are their theses generally ridiculous, they can’t even do a logical job of defending their ridiculousness.
Take one of their favorite phrases, the “clash of civilizations” being fought in Iraq. We know George W sees the world through a comic book lens of good and evil. Never mind that “evil” people might have some good, or at least understandable motives for what they do; never mind that “good” people can commit evil acts in the process of doing good; never mind that what appears evil to one person may appear good to another. Even Darth Vader has a backstory.
In Bushs’ foreign policy as action movie, ”Western civilization” (as symbolized by the US) is battling–what? Eastern civilization? Barbarian pagans? Aliens from the planet Jihad? Iraq the nation-state is an artifact cobbled together by Britain after WWI, but Iraq the territory is the ancent home of the civilization of Babylonia, known as the “cradle of Western civilization”. Written language was born here. So were Abraham and the Jewish religion, and the theological roots of all three major Western religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam). Greek and Roman civilizations relied heavily on concepts first developed in Babylonia.
The US Army crushed ancient ruins to make room for military bases (see George McGovern’s article in the current issue of Harper’s), a graphic and terrible illustration of their ignorance of Iraq’s historical significance.
I would consider Iraq’s current Muslim society to be in keeping with Western civilization, both in its religious theology , technological advancement, and cultural structure. Islamic culture has contributed much in the way of poetry, architecture, and other arts and learning to the world. To be sure, Islamic fundamentalists have their barbaric aspects, but so did the Christian and definitively Western civilization Nazis.
So what kind of clash of civilizations is truly taking place in Iraq? Are two facets of Western civilization battling each other for dominance? Is Western civilization being sacked by the barbarians? And who are the barbarians?
Do us a favor, George W and company. Dust off those dumbed-down brain cells, and at least try and think it through.
